


take my hand (take my whole life too)

by katebishoop



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Tag, F/M, Gen, Season/Series 04 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:28:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28829667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katebishoop/pseuds/katebishoop
Summary: “I know you won’t come back to VILE.” Gray continues. “We’ve had that chat, on the train to Paris. But I’m begging you, give up trying to stop us, because I don’t ever want to be put in a position to hurt you again.”"Then come with me."
Relationships: Gray | Crackle/Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep
Comments: 25
Kudos: 308





	take my hand (take my whole life too)

**Author's Note:**

> Dialogue from the beginning taken from 4x04. Cheesy title from Elvis' "Can't Help Falling In Love With You."

Carmen doesn't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing that Gray is up in a guest room and not in a cell. If he's in the room that is-

She sighs in relief when the door opens to relieve Gray, looking unharmed.

“Gray? We have to move.” She’s already cataloging the room. Where’s the best exit going to be? They can’t go out the way she came. Probably-

“The  _ name’s- _ ”

“Graham, I know. I know.”

“No.” The tone sends ice down Carmen’s spine. Gray stands up, face illuminated by the green glow of a crackle rod. “It’s Crackle.”

Just like that, all relief she had felt on finding him unharmed evaporated.

“I assume you prefer I continue to call you “Carmen”?” 

She hadn’t seen  _ that  _ smirk on him since a train in France. The smirk with just an edge of superiority and the feeling of wasted time.

“Gray, no matter what they told you, you’re not that guy anymore.” Carmen pleads.

Gray holds the rod out towards her and Carmen fights the urge to flinch back. This is Gray. Not Crackle, no matter what he says. 

That smirk falls into a frown. 

“But I am that guy.” Gray says, “I’ve always been that guy.”

“No.”  _ No. _ “Sydney, the cafe, we’re the good guys, remember?”

Gray scoffs, a ghost of a smile on his face. “When you finally had that cuppa with me.” 

He has to be remembering what she’s remembering. The warm cup in her hand, the warm presence across from her… The date which she insisted was not a  _ date _ but which he insisted on calling a date which she eventually stopped correcting him on as the idea of a date with Gray of all people didn’t seem so strange anymore-

Carmen shakes himself out of her memories. 

“Being good only mattered to me because Bellum rewired my thinking, programmed me, to be some sort of “innocent fool.” Gray spits out the last word.

She remembers the differences for when she first re-met him - met  _ Graham _ . He was the same but - different. A different sense of humor. Different boundaries. 

Take the best parts of each of them though? Was that fair?

“It’s never too late to change,” Carmen says.  _ Please _ .

“I’ve had time to reflect, piece together the fragments.” Gray says, “And there’s only one thing I’ve ever regretted doing for VILE.”

He lowers the rod, the green glow flickering off. It feels like an eternity passes before he opens his eyes. 

“Trying to hurt you.”

_ Gray... _

“I know you won’t come back to VILE.” Gray continues. “We’ve had that chat, on the train to Paris. But I’m begging you, give up trying to stop us, because I don’t ever want to be put in a position to hurt you again.”

Carmen steels herself. VILE has taken everything from her - and they’ve taken him once, but not again.

“Then come with me.”

“Carmen-”

“No- Gray listen. You aren’t a bad guy.” Carmen takes a step forward. “You have the skills - but so do I. It’s what I choose to do with them. Come with me. Use them to help me take down VILE. Don’t go back to being their puppet.”

“It was my choice the first time, and it’s my choice again now-”

“We always planned to be a team. We still can be.”

“ _ I'm trouble! _ I stole some kid's wallet!” Gray’s free hand flies to his hair, pulling on it. “I broke into a house and I don’t even remember doing it Carmen, it was like instinct, I can’t-”

“You don’t want to hurt me?” Carmen hopes her voice doesn’t break. She’s wavering but she can’t let it show. “Then come  _ with me _ .”

Carmen holds out her hand. She can hear an alarm in the distance - they’re running out of time.

“I don’t want to have to hurt you either,” Carmen says. “I wanted to keep you safe from VILE and I failed at that.”

Carmen swallows. No regrets, don’t look back. Keep moving forward. That’s been her for the past two years. But he kept popping back up in her life. And she didn’t realize it, not until that first time, when she stood him up at that cafe.

(When she realized, in her check-ups on him, that he’d go to that same cafe every Friday at the same time). 

“There’s only one thing I’ve regretted about leaving VILE.” She admits for the first time. “And that’s leaving you. Please don’t make me have to leave you again.”

Gray slowly looks from her to her hand.

When he looks back up at her, the smirk he’s wearing is shy - hopeful, and scared.

The cracklerod clatters to the floor.

“Hang on tight, don’t let go?”

The lead weighing in Carmen’s bones melts into feathers. She could laugh - she could cry as he takes her hand but - later, in private. Once their thousands of miles away. Once he’s safe.

“You know how to ski?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working on a few more episode tags, maybe even an expansion of this so. fingers crossed.


End file.
